America the Beautiful, National Parks are not to be missed

After my trip to Japan, I did a crazy thing where I flew back to the states instead of continuing onto Southeast Asia. Breaking up my Asia trip into two chunks made sense at the time. The first half was East Asia -insert Pacific Southwest here- then the second half was Southeast Asia. (I had personal circumstances as to why I jammed this trip between the Asia legs of my itinerary. On this part of my trip, I had a friend join me in Las Vegas and go on this adventure around the Pacific Southwest. This arrangement also worked well because I unloaded my souvenirs from Japan and all the things I overpacked onto my friend to bring back to D.C.)

Visiting Las Vegas and seeing the Grand Canyon were on my bucket list and it made sense to throw in Zion National Park and Page, AZ into the journey because this trip involved a LOT of driving. In hindsight, I had no expectations for the trip and I was pleasantly surprised by Zion National Park. I had a coworker who raved about Zion National Park and I didn’t understand until I went myself.

If you learn anything from this post, Zion National Park is the most amazing place to visit in the U.S. This trip made me realize the beauty of the United States and that there is so much more for me to explore.

Where I went

Las Vegas >(~2 hours)> Zion National Park >(~2 hours)> Page, AZ (Horseshoe Bend, Antelope Canyon) >(~2 hours)> Grand Canyon >(~4 hours)> Las Vegas

As an alternative, the end of the itinerary could have been Grand Canyon >(~2hours)> Sedona, AZ >(~2hours)> Phoenix, AZ because Sedona is a recommended place to visit in the Pacific Southwest as well; but returning the car rental to the same airport was more cost efficient.

Being that I’m doing delayed blog updates, to give context: the dates for the Pacific Southwest leg of my travels were Friday, October 6 - Saturday, October 14, 2017. October/Fall was a perfect time to visit the Pacific Southwest because the weather was optimal during the day and not the typical 100+ degree dry heat usually experienced in that part of the U.S.

Places I stayed

Courtyard Marriott, 2 nights - hotel off the Vegas Strip which was convenient in that it provided a shuttle bus to Mandalay Bay. I also had the chance to use their coin laundry. (I was still backpacking at this point!)
Westin Lake Las Vegas Resort & Spa, 1 night - Decided to stay here for one night and get away from the strip because I had enough points for a free night and one day was enough to see and explore the Las Vegas strip. Since it was the off-season, there was barely anyone around. It had beautiful fireplaces, pools, a relaxing hot tub, and lounge areas which outlook onto a lake and palm trees. I would highly recommend staying here if you could swing it.
Cable Mountain Lodge, 1 night - This could be one of the best places to stay when visiting Zion. If you don’t want to rough it camping, this is an amazing option because it’s located directly at the main entrance of the park. You won’t need to wake up early and wait in the long car lines to enter the park. Another perk was that they have an outdoor hot tub and pool which looked out to the beautiful mountain/rocks of Zion. It was seriously magical. This lodge was specifically chosen because I had to wake up early to stand in line for a “walk-in”/”first come first serve” campsite. Camping at Zion is extremely popular (as all reservations online were sold out) and this process was the only option to secure a spot.
Zion South Campground, Map & Rules, 1 night - I don’t know what I was thinking, but I was super eager to go camping. I haven’t gone camping since middle school. In summary, camping at Zion was worth it. Seeing the stars against the mountains/rocks is unreal and one of the main reasons why I would want to do it again. Caution: it is extremely windy at night. Considering how the rocks are formed, the high winds make sense. It wasn’t a sleepless night, but I would recommend bringing earplugs and warm clothing.
Days Inn Page, AZ, 1 night - This was probably one of the few nice and affordable accommodations in Page, AZ. It was a convenient place to pit stop before heading to the Grand Canyon.
Grand Canyon Mather Campground, Map & Rules, 1 night - I didn’t have to wait in line for this campsite luckily. I managed to snag a reservation in mid-September. This campsite was okay in comparison to Zion. There wasn’t anything amazing about it because there wasn’t much to see. I wouldn’t necessarily say that this is a must do and that I would do this again.

This was a lot of traveling and some people might not appreciate sleeping in a new bed every night. Overall I hope that you can use this as a future guide for a trip around the Pacific Southwest.

Things I did

The things I did in each respective place was self-explanatory: walking around the Vegas Strip, gambling at the Bellagio, trying to see a magic show on the strip (which was canceled), camping!, sightseeing, hiking, and lots of driving.

Hiking at Zion National Park

One of the highlights of this trip was hiking at Zion National Park. Check out the best hikes here. There are SO many hikes to do which varied in difficulty, length, and time. This is probably why it’s one of the better national parks because you wouldn’t be bored. Caution: there are a few the hikes which are not great for those who are afraid of heights because of the drop-offs. Angel’s Landing is one of the scariest hikes in the world and I didn’t finish it on this trip. Overall, the views are amazing, the weather was perfect, and being one with nature was peaceful.

Antelope Canyon, Navajo Nation Reservation, Horseshoe Bend

Traveling around the Pacific Southwest was my first chance to understand and observe a different side of the U.S. I’ve lived on the East Coast my entire life and visited all the major cities in the U.S. All the driving and wide-spread points of interest changed my perspective on how everyday Americans live. Seeing a Native American Reservation for the first time also made me think differently which I could dig into another time.

Antelope Canyon is located on the Navajo Nation Reservation and hence the tours are operated by Navajo-owned businesses. Make sure to book early for the best times to see the canyons. I used this website to book a tour.

The Horseshoe Bend gained its popularity via Instagram and is certainly picture-worthy. At the time I visited, it was unregulated and there was no entrance fee. I heard rumblings that they were thinking about instituting rules and fees due to the increase in tourism.

Overall Antelope Canyon and the Horseshoe bend were nice to see on a day trip to Page and there wasn’t much to do otherwise. It was awe-inspiring to experience the amazing formations created by mother nature in person.

Things I wish I did

Spend more time in Zion to complete more hikes
Brought a nice camera along with me to capture the beauty of nature
Stay on the strip to experience the various themed hotels
Try a buffet in Vegas

General Camping Tips

Book camping reservations in advance on the recreation.gov website
Check the Weather - When sleeping outside, there really isn’t temperature control and your body temperature drops when you sleep. So I highly recommend bringing extra clothes/blankets to keep yourself warm at night.
Packing for Camping - when you’re flying in + camping, the only things I would recommend packing are sleeping bag, sleeping mat, camping lights + batteries, cooler, and tent. You can check one bag with the recommended items and you’re ready to go car-camping! Since all you need is a car rental, the luggage can stay in the trunk while you basically pitch a tent next to your car.
Camping Food & Price Matching! - Aside from the above, you need to bring food with you when camping. We simply did a Target-run and looked for easy to store food. It wasn’t the most healthy selection because we didn’t have a cooler to store food which needed refrigeration over time. We bought things such as canned soup, mac and cheese, tuna, bread, beef jerky. We found this super convenient collapsible cookware - Stanley Cookware Set to cook food over the open campfire - most stores do price matching, so if you find it cheaper on Amazon, show it to the store clerk and you basically bought the item from Amazon!
Fire Starter + Wood, It’s much cheaper to buy the firewood/starter material from Walmart/Target before heading to the campsite. Zion and the Grand Canyon has a general store near the campsite, so it was easy to pick things up you may have forgotten or didn’t purchase, e.g. s’mores, wood.

I probably have a ton of other tips for camping, but it’s easier to have you experience it yourself :). As always, feel free to reach out if you want to hear about my experience.

National Parks Bucket list

This trip made me want to explore a ton of national parks. Hit me up if you’re interested in joining me. The following places are currently on my radar:

Yosemite, California
Banff, Canada
North Cascades National Park, Washington
Bryce Canyon, Utah
Glacier National Park, Montana
Crater Lake National Park, Oregon

Until next month! After spending time in the Pacific Southwest, I went to Singapore.

Photo Credits to Andrey Grinkevich on Unsplash